Iraqi-American woman's beating death may not have been a hate crime

by Tony Pierce

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Shaima Alawadi, 32, mother of five, was beaten to death in her El Cajon home in March. Courtesy of Al Arabiya News

Family turmoil, including a possible divorce and a pending teenage arranged marriage may have been the cause of the death of an Iraqi-American woman. When Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old El Cajon mother of five, was killed in March next to a note saying "go back to your own country, you terrorist", many believed her beating death to have been a hate crime

But search warrants and documents recently obtained by ABC News affiliate KGTV find that Alawadi's 17-year-old daughter, Fatima, the only other person in the house when the attack occurred, was upset about her upcoming arranged marriage to her cousin.

Part of the records obtained were from Fatima's cellphone. During an interview by authorities after her mother's attack, Fatima reportedly received a text message saying "The detective will find out tell them (can’t) talk," an affidavit states.

Fatima seemed to have been distraught about the arranged marriage back all the way back in November. Back on November 3, police, responding to a call of two people having sex in a car discovered a 21-year-old man with Fatima, documents state. After Shaima picked her daughter up and drove her home, Fatima said, "I love you, mom," and jumped out of the family car which was motoring at 35 miles per hour.

Shaima died several days after the vicious beating, but while her mother was still clinging to life an emotional Fatima cried out to local station KUSI saying the killer took her best friend away from her.

“I found her on the floor drowned in her own blood, with a letter next to her hear saying ‘go back to your country, you terrorist.’ We are not the terrorists. You are. Whoever did it," she said. "We don’t know what color you are, but we do know one thing. You are not Christian, you are not Muslim, and you are not Jewish. You are someone without a religion, because if you know God, you would know God would not accept that.”